Bashiok on Gold and the Economy

Posted By: October 2, 2009

Bashiok returned to a thread from earlier this week, making a variety of comments on how gold will function in the economy of Diablo 3, and why having some features slightly in common with those of the most successful RPG ever created isn’t necessarily a terrible thing.

And the issue of gold being problems were addressed at blizzcon this year… And how it makes games very uninviting for new players to be able to get foothold in a gold driven economy.

Bashiok: I’d like to know more about what they said if you have a link. My guess is they were referring to a new player being able to compete in a market (auction house) that’s run by a small percentage of the wealthiest players, or those that use mods to corner the markets. But I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as that even. Anyway, any additional info on what was said would be appreciated.

A gold based economy is infinitely more approachable and easy for new players to get into and understand than an item drive economy. So I think you’re putting your own spin on what they actually said or meant.

other wise gold will be worthless cause item 4 item trades is what u do with stuff that is not boe or bop in a game liek DIABLO.

Bashiok: First and foremost I think it’s a mistake to forget that gold was an intended currency in Diablo II. The Diablo game style isn’t based on the idea that gold needs or has to be worthless and item for item trades are the only thing that work and any attempts to do otherwise will fail because it’s Diablo and people don’t like gold and…

No. Onward. Item for item trades are certainly a part of what people know from Diablo II but remembering the result doesn’t mean it matches the intent.

Let’s make a hypothetical. Diablo III is out and gold is worth something. There are systems or features or something within the game that you want to buy or invest in and it costs gold or gold is a large component of the cost to get it. Regardless of the specifics, you want MORE gold so you can buy some of this stuff you want. Ok.

So then you’re playing and you kill something and a sweet item drops, but you don’t want it. Or better yet, you could keep it for an alt but you know it’s worth something, so…

You can go find someone and trade it for another item You can go sell it on a theoretical auction system getting gold for it, which (being worth something) can then be spent on the system/feature whatever it is you want gold for /or you can turn right around and buy an item you want from the theoretical auction system using the gold you just got

Click through for more of Bashiok replying to the LOLcat-style grammar of the B.net hordes.

And also if you have not played wow on a full server statin fresh you have no idea how gold screw up an economy and make new players not even wanna play.

Bashiok: You could play the entire game (WoW) until you have all the best gear and have beaten the highest level and hardest bosses and never even know that the auction house exists. So I disagree completely.

There’s no reason Diablo III would be any different were it to include an auction house system and gold based economy.

Comments

well i i would a assume a resource system which rewards continuity eg Thh higher your resource level, the higher your resource regeneration

say each wizard has a maximum of 100 energy – the base regeneration for this resource could be 1 per sec + 1per sec for every 5 energy

that means the higher the energy Level is the higher is the regeneration. so you can either cast on a very consistent ratio or Burst out a hell of damage for the prize of relatively helplessness for a decent time – this could also be tweaked in interesting directions via skills –

it would be the opposite of the Barbarian with his resource degeneration and his credo more is always more ( more damage brings even more damage) – so keep rolling

whereas my preconceived Wizard syste would have an exponential resource regenaration – which rewards continuity – but also allows “Oh * Burst damage” – or something in between , so the credo for my preconceived wizard resource system would be : less is somethimes more 😀

—- well atleast something like that would be very cool imo share your opinion on that :O